This invention relates to exercise equipment, and more particularly to aerobic exercise apparatus that engages the feet of a person who is exercising.
Persons using stand-up exercising equipment, such as stair climbing machines and treadmills derive the most benefit from their efforts when they maintain proper posture while they exercise. They should maintain a neutral stance with their shoulders, hips, knees and ankles aligned. Achieving a neutral stance on many types of equipment is difficult when the equipment has fixed handrails. Because of the variations in height or variations in arm and leg length of different individuals, fixed handrails are often at the wrong height or angle for a specific individual. Attempts have been made to overcome the disadvantages of fixed handrails by providing exercising equipment with cross bars that slide along the handrails or that slide up and down vertically with respect to the foot engaging parts of such exercise equipment. It has also been proposed that fixed curved handrails be used for this purpose. However, none of these prior attempts provide hand balancing or support implements that are sufficiently variable in their orientation to the foot engaging parts of the equipment to satisfy the needs of a wide variety of different sized people.